We Are Marshall

[wkrq59]

Owl, do you remember the name of the Sycamore high grad, a really
talented receiver I think, who was a sophomore and did not get to make the trip with the team because he was injured. I interviewed him and wrote a piece on him but I'm damned if I can find the piece even though I have copies of almost everything I wrote in those 34 years. I know the kid was from Sycamore and he was African-American.
Do you maybe remember him.
And that Miami game. An elderly writer on the Huntington paper stirred up a lot of hate against Miami in the few years before Marshall left the MAC for C-USA. It got so bad when Miami went to Huntington that Miami fans were actually threatened and one coach's wife was slapped by a fan with no provocation. The Marshall administration turned a deaf ear to the Miami president's objections and I think the last game between the two in Huntington involved no Miami fans...none.

[sash19]

Q:

That story was made up by Miami fans. That did not happen. However, when Marshall beat Miami with Byron Leftwich hurt, his senior year, Miami's coaching staff destroyed the booth in the Press box they were using. They broke chairs, tables and knocked holes in the wall. An assistant was fired due to it. Marshall and Miami do not like each other however for all the jeering and negative comments Miami claims to get at Marshall, they sure as hell give it right back and then some in Oxford. However, that story you mentioned was just sore losers and I can tell you that there have always been many Miami fans at games at Marshall. They boycoted nothing and never have.


I can tell you right now that Marshall has not done this to Miami or it's fans-

" Miami suspends two assistants following game at Marshall

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Associated Press
Nov. 13, 2002 01:44 PM

OXFORD, Ohio - Miami of Ohio suspended two assistant football coaches Wednesday after one was charged with assaulting a fan and the other damaged a coaches' box following a last-second loss at Marshall.


Defensive coordinator Jon Wauford and assistant coach Taver Johnson have been suspended with pay while school officials investigate, the university said.

Wauford was led off the field in handcuffs and charged with battery, a misdemeanor, for allegedly shoving a fan who was celebrating Marshall's 36-34 win Tuesday night.

Miami officials said Johnson was suspended after taking full responsibility for damaging a Marshall Stadium coaches' box, where a desk was destroyed and chairs were thrown through walls.

Miami president James Garland said he was distressed by what occurred after the game.

"I don't want to prejudge our investigation of the facts. But I have to tell you, as president, to see one of my coaches led away in handcuffs was one of the most difficult things I've seen since I've been here," Garland said. "We justify our support of athletics because of the message that it sends about character. These events of yesterday suggest that we've fallen short of our goal."

Miami said it will reimburse Marshall for the damage to the coaches' box.

"Both of these incidents were highly regrettable," said Steven Snyder, Miami's interim athletic director. "These are leadership positions, and the individuals holding them are held to the highest standards."

Wauford was released on $5,000 bond Wednesday and has a court hearing Dec. 13. The fan, Robert Flaugher, 36, was treated at a hospital and released.

Flaugher was among thousands of fans who stormed the field moments after Marshall scored the winning touchdown in the closing seconds.

West Virginia State Police said Wauford shoved Flaugher, who fell and struck his head on the artificial turf. He was taken away on a stretcher with what was diagnosed as a concussion.

Flaugher's brother, Todd, said that neither he nor his brother used foul or abusive language toward Miami players or coaches.

"He was waving goodbye to Miami's players ... the coach basically hit him with a forearm. That knocked him flat. His head definitely hit first on the turf. It was basically a sucker punch," Todd Flaugher said.

Marshall coach Bob Pruett said he didn't see the confrontation and declined to comment on it.

Asked about the damage in the Miami coaches' box, Pruett said: "People get excited after games. It's a very emotional game. You put your life and soul into a ballgame, and sometimes you react in ways that would be distressful."

[xu74]

Sash, I too was born and raised in Huntington and graduated from X in 1974. My older sister was a Marshall cheerleader in 1970. The night of the plane crash I was at a party at Asman Apartments hosted by my roomates older brother. During the party someone mentioned that they heard about the crash and in a panic I immediately began calling home to check the whereabouts of my sister. The phone line was busy for hours. I finally got through and learned that my sister was not on the flight and that the cheerleaders had driven to and from the game. The cheerleaders almost always flew on the team charter but for that particular game there was an unusually large group of boosters traveling with the team.....which explains why so many local business and civic leaders were lost. A very close friend of mine lost his father and another friend lost both of her parents on that flight. An interesting side note....the girl that lost both parents has a son who is a walkon basketball player currently at Tennessee.

I attended the XU-Marshall football game in Huntington the following year for two reasons.....obviously it was an opportunity to go home for the weekend but I also had several friends that played for X. Another interesting side note.....sons of former XU players currently playing college football. If you check the Ohio State roster you will find the names Howe and Ballard, Reis is on the Dayton roster, and Huber on the UC roster....all of their fathers played for X in the early 70's. I don't recall much of the game and we left the stadium immediately after the game. But I did hear from numerous folks that the Marshall fans remained in the stadium for hours after the game. It was almost like they didn't know what to do.......laugh, cry, cheer, pray, go celebrate.......they didn't rush the field necessarily but simply stood in the stands.

Another related story......I worked with a guy here in Cincy around 1990 who played for Marshall the year of the crash (he was injured and did not travel with the team for that game). It had been nearly 20 years since that horrific accident and he had not flown since.

[xubrew]

I can tell you right now that Marshall has not done this to Miami or it's fans-

these charges were dropped, although that fact wasn't all over the news, and it basically ended up looking like it was WAAAAAYY overblown. i've seen the tape of wauford being led off in handcuffs (i think everyone has), but not of the alledged assault. i do know some people that were on miami's team at the time, and i believe them when they say that the video shows that there was no way it could have happened like the victim alledged. the victim was a lawyer himself. i think that if he was as guilty as he was alledged of being, there would have been a conviction. there wasn't.

i'm not a fan of miami AT ALL, and i definitely don't think tearing up a coaches box is acceptable (although it happens more than people probably realize. locker rooms too). however, i don't think the miami coach simply laid this guy out like he was accused of doing. evidently, the courts didn't think that either.

[sash19]

Brew:

I also believe that the Miami coach being arrested for assault situation was way overblown. However my point was that the Marshall fans are always so bad and mean however none of our coaches have ever been lead off the field in handcuffs nor have they destroyed a press box room. Just showing that all things are equal in this rivalry.

[xubrew]

sash, my angle isn't that one fanbase is more hostile than the other. to be honest, i'm not all that familiar with either fanbase, but i've been around both of them multiple times and neither struck me as being particularly hostile.

however, this one isolated incident, was crap. he was led off the field in handcuffs, but that doesn't mean he should have been, and later all charges were dropped. the officers that arrested him evidently didn't even see it. they just took the guy's word for it. this incident cost him his job and it came close to ruining his career because he was accused of and then assumed of being far more guilty than he actually was. to me, the marshall fan (not fans. i'm not holding an entire fanbase or program responsible for one person) leaves a much more sour taste in my mouth than what the coach did. at best it was an accident, and at worst the victim embellished his version of the story.

[sweet16]

Sash, I too was born and raised in Huntington and graduated from X in 1974. My older sister was a Marshall cheerleader in 1970. The night of the plane crash I was at a party at Asman Apartments hosted by my roomates older brother. During the party someone mentioned that they heard about the crash and in a panic I immediately began calling home to check the whereabouts of my sister. The phone line was busy for hours. I finally got through and learned that my sister was not on the flight and that the cheerleaders had driven to and from the game. The cheerleaders almost always flew on the team charter but for that particular game there was an unusually large group of boosters traveling with the team.....which explains why so many local business and civic leaders were lost. A very close friend of mine lost his father and another friend lost both of her parents on that flight. An interesting side note....the girl that lost both parents has a son who is a walkon basketball player currently at Tennessee.

I attended the XU-Marshall football game in Huntington the following year for two reasons.....obviously it was an opportunity to go home for the weekend but I also had several friends that played for X. Another interesting side note.....sons of former XU players currently playing college football. If you check the Ohio State roster you will find the names Howe and Ballard, Reis is on the Dayton roster, and Huber on the UC roster....all of their fathers played for X in the early 70's. I don't recall much of the game and we left the stadium immediately after the game. But I did hear from numerous folks that the Marshall fans remained in the stadium for hours after the game. It was almost like they didn't know what to do.......laugh, cry, cheer, pray, go celebrate.......they didn't rush the field necessarily but simply stood in the stands.

Another related story......I worked with a guy here in Cincy around 1990 who played for Marshall the year of the crash (he was injured and did not travel with the team for that game). It had been nearly 20 years since that horrific accident and he had not flown since.

Wow! And to think I watched the movie having some sort of vested interest because I'm an X alum. Maybe we forget sometimes how that movie REALLY touched so many people. BTW, did the player you referred to happen to play HS football in northern KY?

[wkrq59]

The incident in the stands happened two years before the one in which the assistant coach lost his job. I know damn well that the one I speak of happened because I talked to the coach's wife and two of her friends. All three women were at the game foolishly wearing Miami logo apparel. The coach's wife was slapped in the face and one of the women with her was shoved to the floor of the stands.
I also have read the inflammatory garbage written in the Huntington newspaper about Miami. Three stories before game day and all accused Miami fans in Yager of things which absolute4ly did not happen. I know. I covered the game and had a damn good view of both stands. Contrary to popular belief, that beating by Miami had little to do with the inflammatory articles written in Huntington before the last four Miami games played in the series.
It's all moot point now, because the two teams will never be playing again any time soon. I know for certain that Miami students, boosters and just plain fans of the team were told not to go to Huntington for that game at which the Miami assistant was arrested and subsequently lost his job over the bogus incident. BTW, the fan whom the Miami assistant allegedly hit pulled a dive that would have drawn a penalty if it happened at any level of professional hockey. I can say that with certainty because I saw the alleged incident replayed on TV several times and later on ESPN and the local stations here.
Bottom line, thanks to some very irresponsible newspapering ( I would not dignify the guy's crap as journalism) there has been bad blood between the two schools that carried over to other sports, men's and women's where the two schools were concerned.
This was not a matter of student spirit gone wild as at several Stanford Cal. games where the Stanford band played the reproduction song from Grease and the band formed a penis on the field. Nor was it similar to Miami's visit to Ohio U for basketball (I was there, too). the Band played "Moon over Miami," and at the end of the song, the entire band stood, turned and dropped trou--men and women alike. The repercussions after that involved some serious discipline from the president and BOT of Ohio University.
In all the Miami hoops games I covered at Ohio, there were no incidents of violence in the stands toward Miami fans. And believe me, the rivalry between those two schools isa helluva lot more intense than any trumped-up tripe involving Miami and Marshall.